


All of Me

by hoard_of_stars



Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians & Related Fandoms - All Media Types
Genre: F/F, F/M, M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-04-07
Updated: 2019-04-06
Packaged: 2020-01-06 00:22:28
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 8,656
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18377105
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hoard_of_stars/pseuds/hoard_of_stars
Summary: They had no idea that one trip to the hospital would set off the bomb for six other stories to unwind.A trip to the hospital for Leo Valdez's broken hand would prompt Nico di Angelo to meet Will Solace in a hospital he wasn't even supposed to be at.A 'meet the family' would prompt Hazel Levesque to bump into Frank Zhang at a carnival in a country she knew nothing about.A tour of the workplace would prompt Jason Grace to [literally] fall for Piper McLean when he was supposed to be showing the new 'praetor' around.A sparring demonstration would prompt Reyna Ramirez-Arellano to throw hands with Thalia Grace while attempting to teach the kids at camp.An activism rally would prompt Juniper to push her anxiety to the side in order to join forces with Grover Underwood to defend the wild against people who didn't care.A surprise visit at work would prompt Percy Jackson to fall in love with the woman he was serving coffee to, surrounded by his friends, who were dying of laughter at his expense.They had no idea that one trip to the hospital would bring together fourteen people. They had no idea that it one trip to the hospital would also tear them apart.





	All of Me

_ ~ _

_ What would I do without your smart mouth _

_ Drawing me in, and you kicking me out _

_ Got my head spinning, no kidding, I can’t pin you down _

_ ~ _

Calypso was almost certain she was meant to be alone forever. Never given a watch, born with a nonexistent black stain, and an almost frozen heart. 

Well, it would have been frozen, she thought, smiling. She had known Leo for what felt like _forever._ In fact, they were born within weeks of each other and introduced before they had aged a year. And they understood each other, for he was born with no watch, stained fingers, and a heart that was on fire. 

Sometimes she thought that his blazing heart was the only thing that could melt hers.

Of course, she never acted on the flutter in her stomach whenever he was with her. She had had experiences with other men, and they had all left her. Calypso wondered bitterly when Leo would leave her for his Penelope, his Elizabeth, his Annabeth.

The sad part? She knew he was bound to find his special someone eventually, unlike her. It was inevitable. 

Calypso shook her head, her hair falling in front of her face like a wispy Photoshopped void. She had always hoped that it would be a colour other than black, but as she had been born with the ability to see in colour, her hopes had been dashed firmly but gently by her sister, Zoë.

Sometimes Calypso had to remind herself that were some things even Zoë didn’t understand. It had nothing to do with the hair. It had nothing to do with the hair, it would never have anything to do with the hair. Still, she couldn’t blame Zoë. As wonderful as she was, she was only human. How many times had she expressed her wishes of aspiring to be more? You’d think girl was practically immortal if you saw the way she never ceased to do anything but  _ live _ .

She had always said that you would always be alive, but that didn’t mean you were living.

Calypso had been feeling strangely depressed, and of course she knew why. It was  _ today _ , and she knew that not doing anything would only result in a depressive relapse somewhere around midnight, but she couldn’t make herself think, wouldn’t think.

A blast of heat hit her in the face as she opened the oven and slid in a loaf of bread dough. Huffing, she waved the hot air out of her face as she moved to shut the oven door. The time was 4:46… she would have just enough time to go check on her garden. Her fruit was at its prime this time of year, which meant she could make jam if she could convince herself to.

The garden air was cool and crisp. It was 70 degrees outside, which was the perfect weather for lemonade and fresh fruit and bread on the back porch. She didn’t have to get around to making jam today, after all. 

“Hey, sunshine!” a voice rang out, disrupting the tranquility. “Watch out!”

A buzzing noise made her aware of a presence behind her. She whirled around just in time to see a robotic dragon dive bombing her way, and she dove to the side, landing in the bushes. 

Her table, however, was not so lucky.

“Leo Valdez, how many times have I  _ told _ you,” she growled, pulling herself out of the bushes and brushing the dirt off her jeans. “That you cannot bring Festus into my garden anymore! This is the fourth time my dining table has been wrecked-”

“Well, maybe you shouldn’t have a freaking dining table in your backyard,” he retorted, scooping his dragon off the ground. “Ah, don’t worry, sunshine, I’ll fix it for you.”

“You better.”

He grinned at her and took a deep breath through his nostrils. “Do I smell bread?” he asked, already creeping towards the door that led to the kitchen. 

“Yes, you do. No, you cannot have any.” His pout pulled at her heartstrings, made them ache so awfully that she knew he would be the death of her one way or another. 

“Please, Cal?” he whimpered, clasping his hands together. “I promise I’ll keep Festus at home next time.”

“Have you ever even  _ heard _ the story of the little red hen, Valdez?” She rolled her eyes, relenting. “You better be inside in five minutes, and  _ wash your hands _ , I can spot the motor oil a mile away.”

“Hey, that’s not motor oil.” Leo looked offended. “It’s the soulmate stain!”

Calypso raised an eyebrow. 

“Well,” he amended, “Maybe  _ some _ of it’s motor oil. But only because I’ve been up for the past 48 hours working on innovations for the Argo II and-” he clapped a hand over his mouth.

“You haven’t slept in two days?!” 

“Uhh… no?”

“Sometimes I think if I weren’t here to watch out for you, you would get yourself killed out of pure stupidity. Doing something dumb, like blowing up your microwave trying to microwave a ball of aluminum foil to get a sleek aluminum orb just because you saw it on YouTube.”

“That was  _ once _ , Callie!” 

“I want hands washed. You, in the kitchen in ten minutes. Bring in some peaches and pears from their respective trees. You’re staying the night and getting some sleep, because only God knows you’ll be too distracted to do it in a place where you have your contraptions.”

“Stay the night? As in,  _ stay the night- _ ” Leo’s shit eating grin was disrupted by a sharp but playful shove. 

“You’d be staying in the guest room. Neither of are are about to get lucky anytime soon, Valdez.”

“Hey. I’m gonna find her someday. And you’re going to find yours too. Do you have such little faith?” Leo was completely serious now. “We’re gonna find them. And I don’t buy into your bullshit about not having a mark. It’s there, somewhere. You just might not know it. Maybe it’s a birthmark you always just assumed was a birthmark or something like that, I don’t know.”

She cracked a smile. “Go wash up, Leo. My bread’s going to burn. And don’t forget the fruit.”

* * *

Calypso made it to the kitchen just in time to take the bread out of the oven. The crust was golden brown and seared to perfection, but the inside was still soft and airy. She hummed a tune as she flipped the pan over on a cooling rack and set it on the counter. The pan went into the sink to be washed before dinner. 

She had a particular schedule. She had known a life without the tranquility and peace she so adored, one where her mother had died a little while after giving birth and her half-sisters had hated her. All of them but Zoë, who, unlike Calypso, was their blood sister but never treated her as anything less. On days where nobody bothered to care, Zoë was there. 

Her death had been one of the hardest things Calypso had to-  _ still is _ \- coping with. Zoë was one of the mark-less, but that never stopped her from hoping. Kind of like Calypso. Maybe that's why they had bonded almost immediately. When Zoë had put her trust in a man named Heracles- yes, after the Greek guy, what were his parents  _ thinking _ \- to get her out of their father’s house.

“I promise you, he will help us,” she had told her, eyes shining. “When we are out of this wretched place, we will go and get our own apartment. We can be roommates, get jobs, possibly a dog-” 

“-Or a cat,” Calypso had interjected, poking her sister in the ribs.

“Or a cat,” Zoë agreed, nodding. “And we will finally see how beautiful the world is outside these four walls. And I can show you the stars as well- oh, how I have missed the stars, Calypso….”

When they were both very young, their father had uprooted them from their beautiful countryside house with its vast landscapes that reached out to shake hands with the sun and dragged them to a small, crowded apartment. It wasn't that Atlas was an abusive monster of a parent. It was that he highly favoured his other daughters over Zoë and Calypso. He was manipulative. Zoë had been smart; if you stood against her, she showed you no mercy- family or not. Calypso had been foolish and stood with him in a fight that had landed her in prison for a while. 

And it was such an awful place… her eyes burned with the memory. With a jolt, she realized there were wet tracks running down her face. She didn’t know she had been crying. She hastily wiped them away with fingers that may or may not have been shaking.

“Sunshine! My hands are washed and I brought the fruit!” Leo called from down the hall. She took a deep breath, composing herself.

“Bring the fruit in the kitchen and grab a plate!” she called back to him. Two seconds later, he was standing in the doorway with that stupid shit eating grin on his face. 

“You called?”

“I’ll pretend it’s not just because I feed you,” she smirked, slicing the bread with a knife. It was amazing how quickly she could go from depressed to a sort of half-assed happy. Around Leo, though, she felt as though she could be a little melancholy and he wouldn’t question it. Better, he would understand it without her saying anything. He was like that. They could be sad together, alone together. 

Except they weren’t alone when they were together. They had each other. If that sounded like something out of some cheesy rom-com, she didn’t care because it was so true it almost hurt.

She loaded up the plates without glancing backwards and went into the living room, plunking down on one of the many blankets and cushions on the floor.. She had blankets spread out on the ground because on Friday nights that was what she usually did, she thought firmly. It had nothing to do with spreading out blankets on the roof of an old apartment and naming every constellation wrong on purpose just to listen to her rant about ‘ _ how hopeless are you, Calypso, I have told you that one is the Ursa Minor, not the Big Dipper- _ ’

“Callie, Cal, sunshine, repair girl, Queen of Ogygia,  _ mamacita _ -” Her gaze snapped to Leo, whose bread and fruit lay untouched on his plate as he waved his hand in front of her face, calling out every nickname in the book with increasing intensity.

“Huh?”

“You zoned out for a moment there, goldilocks,” he said worriedly. “Look, I’m sorry about the dining table, I really am. I’m obviously really stressing you out, so maybe I should just take my dragon and the table and skedaddle for a while. You don’t seem okay.”

“I’m not,” she admitted, lacing her fingers together in her lap. “But I don’t want you to leave.”

“I think it’s you who needs the sleep and the relaxation more than I do, blondie,” Leo smirked. “Look- you have bags under your eyes and I could spot them a mile away!”

She blinked once, then realized he was mocking her. “Shut up and eat your bread.”

“I’m gonna do that, chica, but I want to make sure you’ll be okay before anything.” He paused for a moment, looking Calypso in the eyes. “You’re  _ important _ to me, half-pint.”

“Leo, we’re the same height. If I’m going down, I’m taking you down with me.”

“Shh, let me expand on my list of endearing nicknames for you.”

“Alright, repair boy. Whatever you say.”

“Whatever I say?” Leo turned to grin cheekily at her, his plate of food forgotten.

“Forget about it.”

* * *

“And so, Buford runs off because I didn’t use that exact brand of polisher shit that he likes and nearly gets us all killed/explodes the entire camp and guess who Mr D gives community work to?  _ ME _ !” Leo burst out, crossing his arms over his chest like an angry toddler.

Calypso snorted around her glass of wine. “Serves you right, Leo. You know what Buford likes and how he gets if you don’t deliver.”   


“We were out of Lemon Pledge that one day,” he complained, biting down on a peach slice. The juice dribbled down his arms and off his elbows onto his lap. “Damn, how do you get these peaches so juicy?”

“A magician never reveals her secrets,” Calypso snickered. Leo huffed and threw back a shot. It wasn't a strong one, he never drank heavily, Calypso knew that much. But they were both adults, they needed to live once in a while.

“That sucks,” he commented grumpily, curls falling into his eyes. “Can’t you make an exception?” he asked, clasping his hands under his chin with the biggest, most heart-melting puppy eyes she’d ever seen and before she knew it, she was talking, talking without thinking, talking without stopping, talking and just  _ feeling _ .

“My sister Zoë Nightshade taught me how to do it. You go into the woods behind the shitty lofts uptown and bring back some of the richest soil they’ve got because it really is the best dirt, it’s not thin or gritty or sandy, it’s so heavy with moisture and it cakes on your hands and Zoë always said that was the best kind of soil, you know- when she ran away from home, she’d send me letters about the places she’d been and how happy she was, telling me about all the new stars she had seen and the constellations she’d discovered- there was always something about hearing her talk about the sky that enraptured you, you know?” 

Leo had stopped grinning. He was looking at her strangely but she didn’t stop talking.

“And after the fight between my dad and his nephews, when I sided with my dad, I would have gotten jailed for life if Percy hadn’t made them trim a few years off my sentence and then you came along for the first time in years and I remember seeing your stupid, beautiful face and thinking there was something worth living for again and Zoë’s letters kept coming and coming and she promised me that  _ she’d  _ get me out of there someday, that she’d keep me safe like she promised every night of all those days where we’d sneak out of our rooms and onto the roof and nick some of dad’s good alcohol- we’d climb up there and spread out blankets out and Zoë was always such a g-good climber and she’d always be faster than me, scale the side of the building like fucking Spider-man-” a lump formed in her throat and her face started burning, but she kept speaking.

“And we’d sit up there, j-just  _ talking _ about our plans and I never- I never thought that w-we’d be whe-where were then, me in prison and her on the run with her group of Hunters and so far apart- and then when you and I finally got out of that place together and I wanted to find her so badly so we could get that  _ stupid joint apartment  _ with that  _ stupid fucking pet  _ and those  _ stupid jobs together  _ and s-see the stars again in the countryside like when we were kids and- and then Percy told me she was dead and… and- and-” She broke off into sobs suddenly and buried her face in her arms, the dam she had been building up bursting suddenly because  _ Zoë Nightshade was fucking dead, goddammit, and there was nothing she could do about it- _

“Hey- hey, Calypso!” With a jolt, she realized it was the first time he had called her by her proper name all day. His arms were around her and she was slumping into his embrace and they fit together perfectly like two jigsaw puzzles.

“Calypso, sunshine, babe, breathe, alright? Breathe, it’s gonna be alright. It’s gonna be alright,  _ I promise you, it’s gonna be alright _ .”

And he held her until she was finished crying and her eyes were puffy and red and her skin was blotchy with tears. 

“Alright, sweetheart, you take this-” he fished around in his pocket for a rag that was probably soaked with motor oil, dammit, but she accepted it anyway, silently thinking that he was never going to get it back. “-and go wash up. Splash some water on your face, Cal, and get back here. Bring a hairbrush and some of those tiny rubber bands girls use for their hair, I’ll braid it for you and put it up. Piper’s been helping me practice. You’ll be ready for war when I’m done with you.” He patted her back and she numbly stood up, suddenly overwhelmed with shame. 

“I’m- I’m sorry,” she said, turning around to face him, head hanging. “You shouldn’t have had to hear that. That’s my burden and nobody else’s. It’s just that five years ago today… my sister died. I found out three years ago, when I wanted to see her after we got out of Ogygia. And I guess I’ve been sort of down all day and I’ve been trying not to think about it.” Leo winced at the mention of the prison they had both spent time in, but clasped his hands together in what she recognized as a finger gun.

“Hands up, you’re under arrest,” he said sternly, but his eyes were warm and comforting. “You have the right to anything that you feel. Nothing you say can or will be used against you… ever. You have the right to your emotions and how you feel at any given point in time. If you don’t wish to disclose that information to anyone, that’s alright too. You can decide at any time to exercise these rights and not to answer any questions or make statements. Do you understand each of these rights as I have explained them to you? Having them in mind, do you wish to speak to me right now?”

She smiled a little in spite of her still-teary eyes. “Maybe later.” Calypso paused, biting the inside of her cheeks. “Thanks.”

“Don’t mention it,  _ mi amor _ . You’ve done the same thing for me countless times. Now,  _ get _ . And don’t forget the brush and hair ties on your way back.”

* * *

She glanced over her shoulder at Leo’s determined face as she huddled into the hoodie he had so chivalrously insisted that she wear upon her return from the bathroom. “Are you  _ sure _ this is a good idea?”

He feigned hurt. “What, you don’t trust me?”

“No! It’s not that. It’s just that you have a particular affinity for setting things on fire so I’m not exactly sure how wise it is to let you near my hair.”

“Do you  _ see _ any matches?” he huffed.

“There’s a glass of alcohol right next to you,” Calypso pointed out, muffling a huff of her own.

“Yes, but I don’t have anything to set it on fire with, or did you forget I can’t set stuff on fire with just my bare hands?”

“You once started a kitchen fire with a bag of Hot Cheetos, a knife, and a decorative rock, Valdez,” Calypso smirked as he grumbled.

“That was  _ once _ !"

“Just do your thing, please don’t make me regret trusting you.”

“Sure thing, lovely.” She could almost see his wink and that beaming grin as he ran the brush carefully through her hair. 

Once, twice, three times. Lift, position, drag, repeat. Over and over until her hair was unmatted and smoother than she had ever gotten it. It mildly impressed Calypso, but of course she wasn't going to admit that.

“I would like to try a Dutch milkmaid… it would compliment the shape of your face bones very well. What do you think about that, Miss Atlas?” he said in the worst French accent Calypso had ever heard. She groaned and Leo let out a small giggle. Her ears turned red- that giggle was so  _ cute _ … cute in an adorable puppy way, of course, definitely not in a soulmate way or anything, nothing of the sort. She wasn't destined for that, least of all with her childhood best friend. 

“You do your thing. I can only do basic braids, but it kills your scalp. It took me years to get used to it,” she added. “I tend to do mine a little tighter and really high. I remember I tried braiding Zoë’s hair once and she forbade me from ever getting anywhere near her head again… like, ever.” Calypso snorted out a laugh in spite of herself. “God, I miss that girl.”

“You should tell me more about this gal, sweetcheeks,” he teased good-naturedly, parting her hair with a comb that Calypso had decided to bring even though he hadn’t requested it. She had also brought bobby pins and lobster claws, just in case. “I’ve never heard you talk about anyone like this. I mean, not even  _ me- _ ” Calypso cut him off with an insolent sound, but he continued as if he hadn’t been interrupted.

“I mean, it sounds like you really loved her.” Did he sound… vaguely jealous? If he did, it disappeared almost immediately from his voice as he said cheerfully, “Now, let’s do this and see if you ever doubt my hairstyling abilities again. And tell me about this Zoë Nightshade.”

“She was my half-sister,” Calypso began. “She looked like a fucking princess, I shit you not, Leo. She looked and acted like Persian royalty and lived like every day would be her last. Constantly had a stick up her ass but had a rebellious streak a mile wide. We were… more than friends. More than sisters, even… you could have called us platonic soulmates.

“I thought you said you didn’t  _ have _ a soulmate,” Leo said accusingly.

“I don’t! It was a joke,” she wrinkled her nose. “Are you feeling okay?”

“Better than ever, pumpkin,” he said, sounding a little more like his old self as he started gathering hair from both sides of the part that covered the top of her scalp and twisted them together in the middle of the back of her head. He pinned it back with a bobby pin. “Is it okay so far?” 

“More than okay.” Calypso debated on continuing about Zoë, then ultimately decided to throw it for a loop. “She formed a friendship with one of my dad’s nephew’s daughters, Artemis, and wound up joining her group of Hunters. We were… sixteen? I didn’t know that the day she took me up to the roof to watch a meteor shower on the roof of our dad’s dingy, second-rate apartment would be the last time I would ever see her again in person.”

Her lip started quivering a little and she clasped her fingers together to stop their shaking.

“If you don’t wish to disclose any of this information to anyone, that’s alright, too,” he repeated calmly. 

“No. No, I can do this. I have to say it eventually, right? It’s been three years since I found out.”

She felt him nodding and his calloused fingers separating her long black hair into two parts and carefully tossing each part over her shoulders. Leaning over her shoulder slightly, he took her front right part of hair and started braiding it slowly. She blinked hard as the room seemed to get brighter.

“Did… did you see that?”

“See what, princess?”

“N- nothing. I’m losing my marbles… I must be. Anyway, her favorite animal was the wolf. She genuinely wanted to get a real wolf so bad, you have no idea how many times I had to talk her out of trying to lure one into the apartment with some smoked ham or some other thing that she had whipped up. She knew every star and constellation by heart and-  _ shit _ !”

A flash of white blazed in front of her eyes. It left everything swirling viciously. She felt Leo jolt as well but he kept a firm hold on the braid he was holding. He had transferred to the left side and was obviously determined not to let it unravel. 

Her hand grazed the elegant braids that were braided against her scalp on each side, impressed. The one on her right side was tied back at the nape of her neck, tied against unbraided hair and looped around her head, pinned up with rubber bands. He quickly finished it and snapped a rubber band on the end, rubbing furiously at his eyes for a moment and picking up quickly on the other side once more, doing the same thing that he had done to the right side.

“Alright, I saw  _ that _ ,” he admitted, pinning the braid up with another couple of bobby pins. “It was weird as fuck.” There was now one braid that was underneath each of the others trailing down her back. He swiftly wrapped it around her head and tucked it into place, securing it with yet another pin.

“But, on the bright side, your hair is finished!” He clapped his hands twice like an excited kid. “C’mon, you gotta look!” He took off towards the bathroom and she followed hesitantly. Leo was standing in front of the bathroom mirror, tapping his foot impatiently. “Hurry!”

“Alright, alright, calm down,” she mumbled, peering into the mirror. The result took her breath away. It was beautiful and elegant and exactly the type of thing Zoë would have spent days perfecting. She told Leo that and he flushed, pleased.

“Glad to hear it, Cal.” He smirked and ran a hand through his hair. It faded a little as he examined her hair more closely. “Is.. is your hair changing colour?”

She whirled around and nearly smashed her nose into the mirror; he was right. A steady cinnamon coloured hue was crawling up the normally pitch black hair. “It’s… it’s changing.”

Leo let out a choking noise behind her. “Cal… sunshine, _babe_ , look at this.” He was staring at his own fingertips, alight with the most vibrant rainbow of colours she had ever seen.  

“Do you know what this means?” He looked up at her, grinning the most beautiful grin ever. It wasn't devilish or impish or devious in the slightest. It was full of joy, the most wonderful smile she had ever seen and it made the corners of her lips twitch uncontrollably. He looked like he was going to cry from the flood of emotions he was experiencing.

“You and I… we’ve always been able to see in colour because we’ve known each other for basically forever, and can’t remember a time when we didn’t know one another. We never had watches because, like with the sight thing, we’ve known each other basically forever too! And your hair… it was your mark… fucking shit, Calypso, your hair was your fucking soulmate mark! Dear Lord above, you do have a soulmate! You have a soulmate and it’s… it’s me…  _ I’m your soulmate _ … and all that’s missing is a heartlight!” Leo trailed off, staring at her almost expectantly but every bit as incredulously as before.

The smile slid from her face a little, and not just from the very obvious lack of heartlight.

She was soulmates with her best friend, Leo Valdez. 

Leo Valdez, who never pressured her to talk about her emotions but didn’t encourage her to keep it bottled up, either.

Leo Valdez, who fixed her dining table with a smile on his face every time one of his wacko inventions destroyed it.

Leo Valdez, who taught her to step out of her comfort zone and experiment with herself, her hobbies, her clothing style.

Leo Valdez, who showed her the forge and the freedom that came with inventing.

Leo Valdez, who was there for her at a time when no one else was. Not Percy, not Zoë, not anyone.

She didn’t deserve him. Not just because of all he did for her, but because afer a lifetime of knowing him she hadn’t bonded with him in such a manner to warrant a heartlight. They were supposed to glow when soulmates had truly soulbonded. And apparently they hadn’t, because the only light in the room was that of the dimming light bulb.

The full force of the statement hit her as suddenly as it had appeared in her mind. A sinking feeling settled in her stomach and she wasn't aware of saying anything but heard the words slipping past her lips and into open air.

“I… I think you need to leave.”

* * *

It had been a week. A week since they had made their discovery. They hadn’t spoken once and Calypso had never felt so dead inside.

She hadn’t bothered undoing her hair even when she showered for the first time in days, and, after deciding to do something with herself (she wound up making jam and tossing some bread in the oven) she was currently lounging on her sofa in a blanket pile with all the lights off and the blinds open in nothing but a pair of ‘sporty’ short shorts and a way-too-long hoodie. Leo’s way-too-long hoodie. The one he didn’t ask for back before he shut her door behind him.

She was mulling over how likely he was to slam the door in  _ her _ face if she went to return it when at that moment, the obnoxious shriek of the doorbell split the air, disrupting her tranquility. 

Grumbling, she stomped to the front door and threw it open.

“What the fuck do you want?” she hissed, not bothering to even take note of who it was.

“Damn,  _ mamacita _ . I just came to fix your dining table. Christ.”

“Leo?” She squinted, blinking a couple of times. And of course it was him. Of course he had to come back and be so nice to her and even stay true to his word about the whole dining table thing after she had acted like such a bitch to him.

This was exactly why she didn’t deserve him.

“The one and only, sweetheart.” He smiled, gripping his toolbox, but it didn’t mask the bags under his eyes. Calypso subconsciously wondered if he had spent as many nights awake as she did during that past week.

“Come in, Valdez,” she said softly, not meeting his eyes. “It’s still out back. I haven’t really touched it for fear that it might blow up in my face.”

Leo nodded sagely. “Wise. That hair of yours is too pretty to sacrifice. It’s the most likely to catch on fire. By the way, you still haven’t undone my Dutch milkmaid.”

Fuck. 

“I didn’t know how,” she fibbed quickly. “It’s not my fault you used so many fucking bobby pins…”

“Mhm.” 

“You need me to take you out back?” she offered. He looked at her, knowing fully well that she knew he knew the way to the backyard.

“It would help,” he agreed. Calypso said nothing in response and waved him along into the yard, which was, as always, flourishing under her extensive care.

He knelt in front of the wreckage of the dining table and nodded in her direction. She felt like she should have said something, anything to him to break the silence.

_ I’m sorry. _

_ I didn’t mean it. _

_ I don’t deserve someone like you. _

_ It kills me to do this to you. _

_ I never wanted to hurt you. _

She sighed and sat down in the grass, barefoot, as Leo tinkered with one of the legs.

“You know,” he began before she could say a word. “It’s so strange how the absence of someone you take for granted in your life becomes so apparent and just…  _ there _ after a few days of them not being there at all.”

“Really?” she mused, eyes downcast.

“Uh huh. And… it’s also so strange how much of a god-awful feeling that is. It just hurts everything inside you. People don’t like rejection, Calypso.” He finally looked up from his work to look her in the eyes. “People need people. They need love and affection and contact. Which is why they need acceptance from others.” He stopped, gathering himself, and admitting defeatedly, “People don’t like rejection… but that doesn’t mean we can’t respect it. I understand if you just want to stay friends or something like that.”

She couldn’t find the words that she wanted to say. They were bubbling up in her throat but none of them were the ones she needed.

“I never thought I had a chance with you. Since Ogygia, I’ve lived every day hoping that nothing would ever happen to you. I mean, if the gods put something as amazing as you in my life then I was bound to lose you too,” he continued. 

“As a teenager I would flirt with every girl out there just  _ hoping _ , you know? After Mama died I was trying to find  _ some _ form of stability and I guess I leapt towards the most obvious one. I wanted to find her so desperately it was kind of sad.” 

He pulled out a brick wrapped in a sheet of sandpaper and started sanding the wood lightly, shaving away all the charred wood. Which, thankfully, wasn't a lot.

“At first, you were  _ the _ best friend I had ever had, even after we fell out of touch. And then, after seeing you in Ogygia, seeing how much you’d changed… I don’t know, but I think it was then I realized that I loved you, alright?”

Leo flipped the top of the table over and started balancing the four legs on the underside.

“I realized how much I always had. But I’m willing to put that aside if that’s… not what you want. I just want you to be happy, alright?” he said all in one breath, looking up at her with frustration in his eyes as he fished a hammer and a box of nails from his toolbox. 

“And- and it’s absolutely infuriating because on one hand I want to be  _ with _ you and be in love  _ with _ you and I don’t want to be in love alone because there’s no point in that. I want you to love me back- and I don’t want to come off like a fucking douchebag or anything like that because I know it sounds awful and selfish but when you told me to leave that night I felt something in my chest shatter- and I know you did too because  _ why else would you still have my braids in and my hoodie on, look at you _ -

“I  _ told  _ you, there were too many bobby pins!” she squawked indignantly as he pulled back the hammer and steadied a nail, driving the metal into the wood with a  _ bang  _ a split second later.

“And it’s so wrong of me to wonder what it would be like waking up early in the morning to cook something delicious and seeing you stumble into the kitchen just like that, a little tired and probably with awful morning breath too, because why not?” He barked out a bitter laugh, driving another leg into the table with a nail. 

“It pisses me off so much because it’s wrong of me to think about you that way, you aren’t an object or anything and you’re your own person which is why I’m saying that if you don’t want it we don’t have to have it in a romantic way, but, Calypso,-”  _ bang _ “-I nearly went out of my mind without you once and I don’t want to have to again. I don’t care if the heartlights didn’t start glowing yet. They’re bound to eventually… and I don’t care if I die before it happens. I don’t need a light to show how much I’d be able to love you. But  _ still _ \- I respect what you want for yourself and for us, but whatever we do… I wanna do it together.” Leo enunciated his last words by nailing down the last leg with a finality that settled in the air between them.

It all would have been very romantic and intense if Leo hadn’t smashed his fingers with the hammer right after finishing his speech.

He dropped the hammer and it landed on the grass with a dull thud, holding his left fingers in a death grip and cursing in Spanish.

“ _Dios mio_ , _santa mierda*_ , that was supposed to be deep and shit and- _joder, creo que esta sangrando**_ , nope, scratch that, it’s definitely broken, _dios mio_ -” **(*-Oh god, holy fuck, **-[mother]fuck, I think it’s bleeding-)** “I don’t know what I expected.” She shook her head and stood, helping him off the ground. “Come on, I think I have a first aid kit somewhere in the house.”

“That won’t be necessary.” He shook his head, still gripping his fingers. “Slap a bandaid on it and let’s roll.”

“...Are you kidding me-”

“Alright! Alright, fine!” He stopped speaking only to look her in the eyes and deadpan, “Make it two band-aids, then.”

“You’re lucky your fingers are broken otherwise I’d break them for you. I’m calling the hospital to book a short notice appointment.”

She almost retorted but stopped with a harsh intake of breath. An orange-y, reddish glow was emanating from his chest. She looked down and her own chest was bathed in cinnamon light.

Leo was barely holding back a face-splitting grin. “Okay, cool. And before you do that, it’s been like half an hour and I smelled bread on the way in, so just saying that I’m pretty sure you’re only supposed to bake bread for like twelve minutes so you should probabl-eeeeeEEE OH SHIT, IS THAT SMOKE?” Leo’s voice rose three octaves as he gestured wildly at the inside of the house with his shoulder.

She glanced behind her. Smoke was pouring out of the kitchen. “FUCK!”

* * *

Calypso clung onto Leo’s back, thinking that calling Nico di Angelo to take them to the hospital was not the most intelligent idea she’s ever had.

She took a deep breath. “Can you gun it some more?”

“If you want to die, yeah!” he called back, annoyed, but worry was evident in his voice. The silver watch on his wrist glinted as he gunned the engines anyway. “How did Valdez even break his fingers in the first place?!”

“He smashed them under a hammer,” she replied. “I prematurely set it before we left but I did a shitty job, I don’t know how well I can hold up.”

Leo, who was sandwiched between Calypso and Nico, huffed. “I was  _ trying _ to be romantic, alright? It’s not my fault your face distracts me from my work.”

“Nobody  _ told _ you to look at my face while swinging a hammer around!” 

“Can you two idiots stop bickering like an old married couple?” Nico groaned, swerving around a man trying to run across the street. 

“Shut your goddamn mouth, di Angelo,” Leo huffed.

“Don’t take the Lord’s name in vain!” he chided like the old-fashioned, naive Italian child he was. “And shut up, we’re almost there. Nobody talk or look at me  _ or _ lean over my shoulder. Your heartlights are giving me a headache… I can sense them from here.”

Calypso glanced ahead. She could see the hospital right around the corner. Nico put an extra burst of speed on and slammed the brakes right outside the doors. 

“Go on. I’ll find parking. It’s a good thing I remembered to tell you to grab your freaking ID’s, god knows I’d throttle you both if we had to go back.” Nico saluted them before putting the Harley Davidson into reverse and doing a very ILLEGAL U-turn.

She merely shook her head and lead Leo inside. A t.v. show she didn’t know the name of was playing on the television in the waiting room. It was medically graphic, to say the least. She decided to look away and instead hovered in front of the reservation desk as a girl with ear-length ginger hair shocked electric green looked up at her expectantly.

“Appointment?”

“We called a little while ago,” Calypso fumbled over her words. “He managed to break some fingers on his left hand and-”

“Hey, it’s chill. You guys should probably go out back. Room 405. Ask for Doctor Solace.”

“Thank you,” Calypso said with great relief. “Thank you so much. And- another man’s going to be coming in in a few minutes. Short, pale, black-haired, wears an aviator's jacket? He’s with us. He drove us here and he should be coming in in a few. His name is Nico di Angelo.”

The woman nodded. “I got you. It’s no problem, really.”

“Thanks again!” Calypso nodded over her shoulder as she and Leo went into the back- which was positively  _ vast _ . There were doctors bustling about and way too many rooms to even be reasonable.

“Fuck,” Leo whispered, wincing. “No offense, darling, but I don’t think you set the hand the right way.”

Calypso said nothing. They had to find the hospital room. 

“Come on.”

They took two steps forward and promptly smacked into something.

“Oh, shit, I’m so sorry- didn’t see you there.” The man winced, sheepishly scratching the back of his head with his hand. “Can I help you two?”

“The lady at the front desk told us to look for room 405 and ask for a Doctor Solace,” Leo said quickly. 

“That would be me,” the man said cheekily, bowing in a gallant manner. “Doctor Will Solace, at your service. Room 405 is this way. Follow me.”

As he showed them the way to the room, Leo leaned over and hissed, “I don’t like the way he’s looking at you.”

“You’re cute when you’re jealous,” she smirked back, not bothering to confirm nor deny his accusation. “It’s not my fault we’re here because you had to give some long emotional rant while holding a tool. It was doomed from the start.”

He only grumbled and stepped inside the room that Dr Solace had stopped in front of, plunking down on a chair as noisily as possible. 

“Alright, so we’ll need to test your vitals first. I know you broke your fingers and it looks pretty obvious but it’s still standard protocol.” Dr Solace hummed as he swept around the room in a swishy lab coat and mint green scrubs. “Is that alright with you?”

“I guess,” Leo responded sourly. Calypso slapped his arm with a withering glare.

“Excuse him,” she growled. “He’s not in the right frame of mind right now.”

“Totally understandable. I don’t understand how he hasn’t passed out by now, though. Most people with broken bones are under by the time we get to them if it’s been more than a few hours.”

“Oh, it’s been way more than a few hours,” Calypso grumbled, remembering the gruelling traffic on the highway Nico had to weave through.

Speaking of Nico, it really shouldn’t be taking him so long to find parking for his motorcycle… she was beginning to grow increasingly worried as the period of his absence increased. Dr Solace had nearly finished the vitals test- a good half hour long test- when the door flew open. 

The receptionist lady was standing in the doorway, supporting a drooping figure clad in black, who was being held upright only by the death grip of the receptionist.

“William,” she said calmly. “After you’re done setting the hand, you should check this guy out.” Dr Solace choked and she snorted out a laugh. “Sorry. Wrong choice of words. But seriously. I’m… pretty sure?... he’s with them. He came in looking kinda green and was stumbling a little, and he said his name was Nico di Angelo-” Calypso let out a small groan, and Leo snickered behind his good hand. “-and, well, let’s just say we managed to steer him to the bathroom before he blew chunks all over the front desk.”

Nico made a noise that was a cross between a whine and a groan.

“Jesus,” Calypso hissed, looking at the ceiling. “This is what I get for calling him to drive us to the hospital.”

“Well,” Leo shrugged, “to be fair, you had no idea he was sick until we were five minutes away from the hospital.”

“I can hear you,” Nico snapped, voice thin and trembly.

Dr Solace ran a hand through his golden curls. “I’m just about done setting this patient’s hand. I’ll get to him in a minute. God, there’s been a nasty stomach virus going around, I’ve had to treat at least ten people since Monday for it. Austin and the rest had to treat even more than that. Thanks, Kayla.”

“No problem, dumbass,” Kayla smirked, sitting Nico down in a chair. He buried his face in his hands as Calypso tried to nudge a garbage can in his direction as discreetly as possible. 

“Right back at you, fuckwad. And Austin said it’s your turn to clean the bathroom this weekend.” 

“Are you fucking shitting me, we’re not even home yet!” she complained, shutting the door behind her.

“Sorry about that, you know how siblings are,” Dr Solace said with affection in his voice as he turned his attention back to us. “Now, where were we?”

“Setting my hand. I’m not trying to complain, but it hurts more than I think a broken bone is supposed to.” Leo stared at his hand with a disgruntled expression.

“Well, that is to be expected.” Dr Solace pressed his lips together, trying not to laugh. “Whoever set it set it extremely prematurely.”

Calypso sputtered, face turning red. She wasn't that bad at healing injuries! 

“Aw, come on, sunshine. Are you for real?” Leo whined, wrinkling his nose up. “If you wanted to fuck me up you could have just taken that hammer and smashed my other hand."

“You were emotional,” she answered swiftly. “You would have managed to break it yourself anyway.”

Dr Solace was failing at suppressing his laughter. “We should set it now properly before the bones heal crooked.”

About ten minutes and one bright orange cast later, Dr Solace stepped out of the room with an apology to conference with another doctor, promising he would look at Nico when he came back. 

The Italian in question was laying on the chair curled up on his side, dozing.

Calypso laid a tentative hand on his forehead, smoothing his messy fringe back from his face. “Nico? Hey, you gotta get up. Dr Solace is going to see what in God’s name is wrong with you.”

He mumbled and stirred, cracking open one eye. “Don’t take the Lord’s name in vain.” He smacked his lips and wiped some drool from his mouth. “Eurgh…”

“I should probably call Jason,” she muttered. “You’re not well, and I think that driving in this condition only hyped up whatever this is.”

“No! Don’t call him,” Nico said in a frenzy. “He placed me on house arrest.” The smaller boy pouted, hugging his knees. 

“Why, exactly?” Calypso was beginning to grow worried. “Nico, who did you kill?”

“Didn’t kill anyone,” he said, voice muffled by his jeans. “Stomach bug. Jason quarantined me and he’s been keeping on a diet of ramen and orange juice.”

Calypso stood up, rubbing her temples, about to berate him for doing something so stupid.

“Oh god… Nico, why didn’t you say anything?!” Leo spoke up for Calypso, speaking the words she was about to say. “Why are you always so fucking reckless? After what happened after Gaea, we thought… we thought things would be different. Look, you’re not my favorite person in the world, but you’re everyone’s family. And even if it’s something as small as a stomach bug, we want you to be okay!”

He winced, and Calypso realized he was trembling. “Because… because…” He trailed off, instead opting to hold up his wrist. The silver watch was ticking away.

_ 0:12 _

_ 0:11 _

_ 0:10 _

“Oh,” Calypso said in a small voice. “Oh.”

It was at that moment that Dr Solace burst back into the room with a prescription pad in his hands. “Alright, so I’m prescribing you with some average painkillers. Try not to do anything dumb and fuck your hand up again. And now, for our other patient…”

He turned and their eyes met. Two pairs of eyes, blue and brown, widened at the same time. Nico broke eye contact and immediately and dove off the chair, behind Calypso.

“Oh God. This is too much soulmate bullshit in one day, even for me.” Leo threw his functioning hand up and stalked out. “I’ll be in the waiting room if anyone needs me.”

“I’m coming with you!” Calypso called after him, shooting Nico an apologetic look as she wrenched his hands off her arms. He made a noise of indignance and betrayal that was muffled by the slamming of the door behind them.

“So… heartlights?” Leo asked with a cheeky grin as soon as she had caught up to him. 

“Heartlights, I guess.” 

“So… what are we exactly? It’s up to you. I’m not gonna rant again but I just wanna put this out there for you to consider. Because we  _ can _ just be friends if you want-  _ mmph _ !”   


She cut him off by placing her lips on his own. It was a brief kiss, a chaste kiss, but a kiss nonetheless. She shoved him away from her almost as quickly as she had pulled them together, blushing madly.

“Does that answer your fucking question?”

“More than. And, ah, have you ever heard of kissing an injury better?”

“Don’t push your luck.” She snorted but leaned down to drop a light one on his hand. Leo looked like he had won the lotto.

“I promise I’ll be the best soulmate ever,” he babbled as they walked down the seemingly endless hallway. “I promise you I’ll always come back for you, alright?”

The sentence made her heart leap into her throat. “Alright,” she managed.

A few moments of silence. Then: “Do you think your sister would have liked me? You know, Zoë.”

Calypso laughed a little. “Oh,  _ no _ , she’d loathe you. Absolutely  _ loathe _ you with every fiber of her celestial being.”

“Oh,” he said quietly, and she could feel him drooping a little.

“But,” she added, “she hated most men anyway. And besides, if there was anything she felt as intensely about as she did for her hatred of men, it was her love for her family. And if she had seen how happy you made me, I think that would have surpassed her loathing.”

“Oh,” he said, sounding a little relieved. “That’s good. I don’t want to be anyone you don’t deserve, you know?”

“Just be yourself, and you’ll do just fine. Besides, if anything, I don’t deserve you.” She looked down, biting the inside of her cheek.

“Yeah, lovely, this is one of those times I’m gonna tell you to take your own advice,” he said with a smirk plastered on his face as he gestured down to one of the many empty chairs in the waiting room.

“How about we try doing this together?” she asked, seating herself. “We’re both fucking disasters of humans. So why not be disasters together? Live a little, you know?”

“I like that plan.” Leo nodded, turning to give her the sweetest, most genuine smile she had ever seen. His good hand came up to rest on her hair, still in its Dutch milkmaid. Calypso leaned into the side of his body. He was warm and smelled like the forge and sweat, but she didn’t care.

Okay, maybe she did. She wasn't a judgemental person, but B.O. was on her list of pet peeves right up there with commitment issues.

“Dude.” She leaned back. “You need to take a fucking shower.”

“As long as you decide to join me,” he said with the biggest shit eating grin she had ever seen.

“VALDEZ!"


End file.
